The U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,517 discloses an apparatus for processing tissue samples. On a rotatable table a plurality of processing containers is provided for the sample processing. The table is rotatable so that the processing containers can be transported to a processing station at which the tissue samples are successively immersed in different processing liquids. For a suitable tempering of the actually used processing liquids a heating and cooling device is permanently mounted to the housing of the apparatus. The table is not only rotatable but also raisable and lowerable in the direction of the axle. The rotation, the raising and the lowering are executed with a single motor, which requires a complicated transmission.
A further apparatus for tissue preparation for the tissue embedding is disclosed with the LEICA TP 1020™. The processing liquids are supplied in processing containers which are arranged in a circle. The samples which are to be processed, are stored in suitable sample containers arranged in the cover of the device. The samples are transferred by raising and rotating the cover from one processing bath into the next. The device cannot handle two processing containers of different size.